SYSTEM AND METHOD OF MULTI-MEDIA CONFERENCING BETWEEN UNIVERSAL PLUG AND PLAY (UPnP) ENABLED TELEPHONY DEVICES AND WIRELESS AREA NETWORK (WAN) DEVICES

ABSTRACT

A system and method of multi-media conferencing between Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) telephony devices and Wide Area Network (WAN) devices is provided. The method includes initiating a multi-media conferencing session with WAN devices by at least one telephony control point (TCP) in an UPnP telephony based home network via a session request. The session request includes session information, media capabilities of a telephony client device (TC) associated with the at least one TCP, a list of WAN devices or a conference group identifier associated with one or more WAN devices, and a subject of the multi-media conferencing session. The method further includes establishing the multi-media conferencing session between the TC and the WAN devices by a telephony server (TS) in the UPnP telephony based home network based on the session request.

PRIORITY

This application claims priority under 35 U.S.C. §119(a) to anapplication filed in the Indian Patent Office on Dec. 15, 2009 andassigned Serial No. 3104/CHE/2009, the content of which is incorporatedherein by reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

1. Field of the Invention

The present invention relates to a field of communication and moreparticularly to multi-media conferencing between UPnP enabled telephonydevices and WAN devices.

2. Description of the Related Art

Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of computer network protocolspromulgated by the UPnP Forum. The goals of UPnP forum are to allowdevices to connect seamlessly and to simplify implementation of networksin home data sharing, communications, and entertainment and corporateenvironments. UPnP achieves this by defining and publishing UPnP devicecontrol protocols built upon open, Internet-based communicationstandards.

The UPnP architecture allows peer-to-peer networking of personalcomputers (PCs), networked appliances, and wireless devices. It is adistributed, open architecture based on established standards (e.g.,UPnP telephony device/IP, UDP, HTTP and XML). The UPnP architecturesupports zero-configuration networking. An UPnP compatible device fromany vendor can dynamically join a network, obtain an IP address,announce its name, convey its capabilities upon request, and learnregarding presence and capabilities of other devices.

Similarly, UPnP devices can leave the network automatically withoutproviding any unwanted state information. UPnP protocol providesdiscovery, control and eventing mechanisms. Discovery is enabled usingSimple Service Delivery (SSD) protocol. All control messages are in theform of extended markup language (XML). Eventing follows General EventNotification Architecture (GENA) protocol. Using these technologies,UPnP makes availability and unavailability of the UPnP devices on thefly to the other devices in the network.

The UPnP forum also provides telephony services for extending userexperience in a home to access telephony services like messagingservice, presence service, and Call handling (PS/CS call) service. Asanalogous to UPnP DA, telephony defines three kinds of devices, viz. atelephony server (TS) that provides messaging, and presence relatedservices to the user, a telephony control point (UPnP telephony device)to initiate actions provided by the TS and a telephony client device(TC) for media related handling and providing input and output to/fromthe TS.

The UPnP telephony services enables a user to initiate a call to anyuser outside the UPnP network using a wide area network (WAN) callingtechnology like VOIP or other calling technologies. However, the UPnPtelephony service allows the user to initiate the call with a single WANdevice and not a conference call media session with two or more WANusers as the UPnP telephony network may not support all types of mediacontent. For example, a television set can display a plain text and maynot support video. In case, video frames need to be retrieved, medianegotiation has to be carried out prior to performing setting up themulti-media conferencing session. Additionally, the WAN devices areunaware of the media capabilities of the UPnP telephony device or TC.

If the media capabilities, such as supported multipurpose internet mailextensions (MIME) types, are not considered, then it is possible thatthe UPnP telephony device may receive unsupported media content from theWAN devices (not at all supported by the UPnP telephony device) in theconference call media session, resulting in inconsistent user experiencewith respect to the conference call media session. Currently, the UPnPtelephony service fails to capture and provide dynamic sessioninformation (e.g., the user leaving or joining the session) associatedwith the conference call media session as dynamic information isrequired to be pushed to the user rather than pulled from the UPnPtelephony device.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system and method of multi-mediaconferencing between Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) telephony devicesand wide area network (WAN) devices. According to one aspect of thepresent invention, a method includes initiating a multi-mediaconferencing session with WAN devices by at least one telephony controlpoint (TCP) in an UPnP telephony based home network via a sessionrequest. The session request includes session information, mediacapabilities of a telephony client device (TC) associated with the atleast one TCP, a list of WAN devices or a conference group identifierassociated with the WAN devices, and a subject of the multi-mediaconferencing session. The method further includes establishing themulti-media conferencing session between the TC and the WAN devices by atelephony server (TS) in the UPnP telephony based home network based onthe session request.

According to another aspect of the present invention, an UPnP telephonybased home network system includes at least one TCP for initiating amulti-media conferencing session with WAN devices via a session request,and one or more TCs coupled to the at least one TCP. The system alsoincludes a TS connected to the at least one TCP and the one or more TCsfor establishing the multi-media conferencing session between one of theone or more TCs and the WAN devices based on the session request.

Other features of the embodiments will be apparent from the accompanyingdrawings and from the detailed description that follows.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS

The above and other aspects, features and advantages of the presentinvention will be more apparent from the following detailed descriptiontaken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) telephonybased home network system enabling multi-media conferencing between oneor more telephony client devices (TCs) and Wide Area Network (WAN)devices, according to one embodiment;

FIG. 2 is a process flow chart illustrating an exemplary method ofmulti-media conferencing between a TC in the UPnP telephony based homenetwork system and the WAN devices, according to one embodiment;

FIG. 3 is a process flow chart illustrating an exemplary method ofadding or removing at least one WAN device by a telephony control point(TCP) into/from the ongoing multi-media conferencing session, accordingto one embodiment;

FIG. 4 is a process flow chart illustrating an exemplary method ofproviding media content based on local media capability informationassociated with a TC during the ongoing multi-media conferencingsession, according to one embodiment;

FIG. 5 is a process flow chart illustrating an exemplary method ofjoining the ongoing multi-media conferencing session with the WANdevices, according to one embodiment; and

FIG. 6 shows an example of a suitable computing system environment forimplementing embodiments of the present subject matter.

The drawings described herein are for illustration purposes only and arenot intended to limit the scope of the present disclosure in any way.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides a system and method of multi-mediaconferencing between Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) enabled telephonydevices and Wide Area Network (WAN) devices. In the following detaileddescription of the embodiments of the invention, reference is made tothe accompanying drawings that form a part hereof, and in which areshown by way of illustration specific embodiments in which the inventionmay be practiced. These embodiments are described in sufficient detailto enable those skilled in the art to practice the invention, and it isto be understood that other embodiments may be utilized and that changesmay be made without departing from the scope of the present invention.The following detailed description is, therefore, not to be taken in alimiting sense, and the scope of the present invention is defined onlyby the appended claims.

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of an UPnP telephony based home network system100 enabling multi-media conferencing between one or more telephonyclient devices 101A-N and WAN devices 116A-N, according to oneembodiment. In FIG. 1, the UPnP telephony based home network system 100includes a plurality of UPnP enabled telephony devices communicativelyconnected to a telephony server (TS) 106. The TS 106 is connected to theWAN devices 116A-N via the WAN 114.

The UPnP enabled telephony devices 102A-N includes one or more telephonycontrol points (TCPs) 102A-N and one or more telephony client devices(TCs) 101A-N associated with each of the TCPs 102A-N. Each of the UPnPenabled telephony devices includes a multi-media management module 104for enabling initiating, modifying, updating local media capabilitiesand joining a multi-media conferencing session associated with the WANdevices 116A-N as illustrated in FIG. 1. The multi-media conferencingsession is initiated via a session request that includes list of WANdevices or conference group identifier associated with one or more ofthe WAN devices 116-N, a local session identifier, media capabilities(e.g., MIME types) associated with the one or more TCs 101A-N, a sessionsubject, and a session type.

The multi-media conferencing session may be a video conferencingsession, an audio conferencing session, and an audio and videoconferencing session. The TS 106 includes a request processing module110 for processing a session request (e.g., initiate session request, aglobal modify session request, a join session request and a local mediaupdate request) received from the one of TCPs 102A-N. The TS 106 alsoincludes a session establishment module 108 for establishing amulti-media conferencing session between the one or more TCs 101A-N andthe one or more WAN devices 116A-N based on the session request.

The TS 106 further includes a multi-media data processing module 112 forenabling multi-media conferencing between the TCs 101A-N and the WANdevices 116A-N based on media capabilities of respective one or more TCs101A-N. The message processing module 112 may also allow the TCPs 102A-Nto subscribe to dynamic session information associated with the ongoingmulti-media conferencing session using General Event NotificationArchitecture (GENA) protocol.

For example, the dynamic session information may include user leavingthe session information, user joining the session information, anychanges made to the multi-media conferencing session and the like. Incase the TCP 102A subscribes, the TS 106 provides the dynamic sessioninformation associated with the ongoing multi-media conferencing sessionas notifications to the TCP 102A. The TCP 102A provides the dynamicsession information to associated one or more of the TCs 101A-N. The TS106 also includes a conference server module 113 for hosting themulti-media conference session on the TS 106 in absence of an externalconference server associated with one or more of the WAN devices 116A-N.Moreover, the operation of the UPnP telephony based home network system100 is described in greater detail in FIGS. 2-5.

FIG. 2 is a process flow chart 200 illustrating an exemplary method ofmulti-media conferencing between the TC 101A in the UPnP telephony basedhome network system 100 and the WAN devices 116A-N, according to oneembodiment. At step 202, a session request for initiating a multi-mediaconferencing session is generated by the TCP 102A. The session requestincludes a list of WAN devices or conference group identifier associatedwith the WAN devices 116A-N, local session identifier, mediacapabilities of the TC 101A, and session information (e.g., subject). Inone example embodiment, the session request includes list of WAN devicesfor an adhoc type multi-media conferencing session. In an alternateembodiment, the session request includes conference group identifierassociated with the WAN devices in case of a prearranged multi-mediaconferencing session. Exemplary schema for initiating the prearrangedmulti-media conferencing session using a conference group alreadydefined in an address book of the TS 106 is shown in APPENDIX ‘A’. It isappreciated that, the media negotiation is performed in similar manneras defined in the UPnP telephony call management standard. Additionally,the media capabilities of the TC 101A in the session request are usedduring the media negotiation.

At step 204, the session request is forwarded to the TS 106 by the TCP102A. At step 206, the session request is received by the TS 106 fromthe TCP 102A. At step 208, the received session request is processed andthe list of WAN devices or the conference group identifier associatedwith the WAN devices 116A-N, the local session identifier, the mediacapabilities of the TC 101A, and the session information (e.g., subject)is retrieved from the received session request by the TS 106.

At step 210, it is determined whether the session request is associatedwith a multi-media conferencing session based on the sessioninformation. On one hand, if the session identifier indicates‘individual’, then it is determined that the session request is notassociated with the multi-media conferencing session. In such case, theprocess 200 is terminated. On the other hand, if the session identifierembedded in the session request is ‘group’ then it is determined thatthe session request is associated with the multi-media conferencingsession. In such case, the conference initiate request is generated bythe TS 106 for establishing the multi-media conferencing session betweenthe TC 101A and the WAN devices 116A-N at step 212. For example, theconference initiate request may include a global session identifier,conference link (e.g., agenda), the media capabilities of the TC 101A,the session subject and the like.

At step 214, the conference initiate request is forwarded by the TS 106to each of the WAN devices 116A-N requested in the session request. Asmentioned above, if the WAN device is having an external conferenceserver, the TS forwards the conference initiate request to the externalconference server and updates static information such as the conferencelink (e.g., agenda), the media capabilities of the TC 101A, and thesession subject in the external conference server. Exemplary schema ofstatic information as per OMA standard is shown in APPENDIX ‘B’.Otherwise the conference initiate request is directly sent to the WANdevices 116A-N in which case the TS 106 host the multi-mediaconferencing session on the conference server module 113. At step 216, aconfirmation message is received from each of the WAN devices 116A-N inresponse to the conference initiate request. At step 218, theconfirmation message associated with successful establishment of themulti-media conferencing session is processed and the TCP 102A isnotified by the TS 106 through the processed confirmation message.

At step 220, multi-media data received from one or more of the WANdevices 116A-N is provided to the TC 101A based on the mediacapabilities negotiated during the multi-media conferencing session. Inone embodiment, the multi-media data is provided to the TC 101A in sucha manner that the multi-media data is outputted on the TC 101A in acompatible format. Alternatively, the multi-media data received from theTC 101A is provided to the one or more of the WAN devices 116A-N. Theabove process 200 may also allow the TCP 102A to modify, join or locallyupdate the ongoing multi-media conferencing session with the WAN devices116A-N as described in greater detail in FIGS. 3, 4 and 5. Further, theabove-described process 200 may provide dynamic information to the TCP102A during the ongoing multi-media conferencing session.

FIG. 3 is a process flow chart 300 illustrating an exemplary method ofadding or removing at least one WAN device by the TCP 102A into/from theongoing multi-media conferencing session, according to one embodiment.At step 302, a global modify session request is generated by the TCP102A during the ongoing multi-media conferencing session between the TCP102A and the WAN devices 116A-N. The global modify session requestincludes optionally new subject information, optionally new mediacapabilities of the TC 101A, and at least one WAN device to beadded/removed into/from the multi-media conferencing session.

At step 304, information is retrieved by the TS 106 from the receivedglobal modify session request. At step 306, the modify sessioninformation is communicated with the WAN devices 116A-N by the TS 102over the WAN 114. At step 308, at least one WAN device is added orremoved to/from the ongoing multi-media conferencing session based onthe global modify session request. At step 310, the TCP 102A and otheractive WAN devices of the ongoing multi-media conferencing session arenotified regarding the addition and removal of the at least one WANdevice from the ongoing multi-media conferencing session. It can benoted that, steps 304-310 are performed by the TS 106. In the samemanner, the TCP 102A can update the information (e.g., status, subject,conference schedule information, media capabilities, etc.) during theongoing multi-media conferencing session.

FIG. 4 is a process flow chart 400 illustrating an exemplary method ofproviding media content based on local media capability informationassociated with a TC during the ongoing multi-media conferencingsession, according to one embodiment. At step 402, a local media updaterequest is generated by the TCP 102A during the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session. The local media request is generated by the TCP102A when the TCP 102 wishes to update media capabilities locally in theUPnP telephony based home network system 100. The TCP 102A then sendsthe local media update request to the TS 106. The local media updaterequest includes local session identifier, local media capabilityinformation of a TC 101B, and information associated with the TC 101B.The local media request includes the information associated with the TC101B as the TCP 102A wishes to switch the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session from the TC 101A to the TC 102B.

At step 404, the local media capability information is retrieved fromthe local media update request received by the TS 106. The local mediacapability information indicates media capabilities of the TC 101B forreceiving media content during the ongoing multi-media conferencingsession. At step 406, the local media capability of the TC 101B isdetermined based on the retrieved local media capability information. Atstep 408, the local media capability is updated in the memory of the TS106. At step 410, the TCP 102A is notified regarding the successfullocal media capability update by the TS 106 and the TC 101B is updatedby the TCP 102A regarding the updated local media capabilityinformation.

At step 412, the ongoing multi-media conferencing session is updated andupdated media content is provided to the TC 101B by the TS 106 duringthe ongoing multi-media conference messaging session based on the localmedia capability information. At step 414, the dynamic informationreceived from the TS 106 is processed and forwarded to the TC 101B bythe TCP 102A since the TC 101B is not capable of receiving anddisplaying the dynamic information from the TS 106. In this manner, theabove method provides a 3 box model in the UPnP telephony based homenetwork system 100. Alternatively, one can envision that, the TCP 102Amay send a local update request for updating new local media capabilityof the TC 101A such that the TS 106 provides media content to the TC101A based on the new local media capability in the local media updaterequest. For example, if the new local media capability indicates thatthe TC 101A wishes to receive video content and not audio content, thenthe TS 106 blocks the audio and provides only video content to the TC101A.

FIG. 5 is a process flow chart 500 illustrating an exemplary method ofjoining the ongoing multi-media conferencing session with the WANdevices 116A-N, according to one embodiment. At step 502, a join sessionrequest is generated by the TCP 102A to join the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session. For example, the TCP 102A may generate the joinsession request if the battery of mobile phone is running low or loss ofsignal to the TS 106. At step 504, a session identifier is retrievedfrom the received join session request by the TS 106.

At step 506, it is determined whether the retrieved session identifiermatches with the session identifier associated with the ongoingmulti-media conferencing session. If the match is found, the TS 106joins the ongoing multi-media conferencing session, at step 508. At step510, the TCP 102A is allowed to join the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session based on the join session request. If no match isfound, then at step 512, the join session request is terminated.

Moreover, in one example embodiment, a non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium has instructions that, when executed by one of the TCPs(e.g., Television, Personal Computer) and/or TS 102 (e.g., mobile phone,PDA, and the like), causes the one of the TCPs and the TS 106 performthe methods of FIGS. 2-5.

FIG. 6 shows an example of a suitable computing system environment 600for implementing one or more embodiments of the present subject matter.FIG. 6 and the following discussion are intended to provide a brief,general description of the suitable computing system environment 600 inwhich certain embodiments of the inventive concepts contained herein maybe implemented.

A general computing device 601, such as the TCP 102A and the TS 106, mayinclude the processor 602, the memory 604, a removable storage 606, anda non-removable storage 608. The computing device 601 additionallyincludes a bus 610 and a network interface 612. The computing device 601may include or have access to the computing environment 600 thatincludes one or more user input devices 614, one or more output devices616, and one or more communication connections 618 such as a networkinterface card or a universal serial bus connection. The one or moreuser input devices 614 may be keyboard, mouse, and the like. The one ormore output devices 616 may be a display of the TS 106 and the TCP 102A.The communication connections 618 may include an UPnP telephony basedhome network.

The memory 604 may include volatile memory 620 and non-volatile memory622. A variety of computer-readable storage media may be stored in andaccessed from the memory elements of the computing device 601, such asthe volatile memory 620 and the non-volatile memory 622, the removablestorage 606 and the non-removable storage 608. Computer memory elementsmay include any suitable memory device(s) for storing data andmachine-readable instructions, such as read only memory, random accessmemory, erasable programmable read only memory, electrically erasableprogrammable read only memory, hard drive, removable media drive forhandling compact disks, digital video disks, diskettes, magnetic tapecartridges, memory cards, Memory Sticks™, and the like.

The processor 602, as used herein, means any type of computationalcircuit, such as, but not limited to, a microprocessor, amicrocontroller, a complex instruction set computing microprocessor, areduced instruction set computing microprocessor, a very longinstruction word microprocessor, an explicitly parallel instructioncomputing microprocessor, a graphics processor, a digital signalprocessor, or any other type of processing circuit. The processing unit604 may also include embedded controllers, such as generic orprogrammable logic devices or arrays, application specific integratedcircuits, single-chip computers, smart cards, and the like.

Embodiments of the present subject matter may be implemented inconjunction with program modules, including functions, procedures, datastructures, and application programs, for performing tasks, or definingabstract data types or low-level hardware contexts. Machine-readableinstructions stored on any of the above-mentioned storage media may beexecutable by the processor 602 of the computing device 601. Forexample, a computer program 624 may include machine-readableinstructions capable of multi-media conferencing between UPnP enabledtelephony devices and WAN devices, according to the teachings and hereindescribed embodiments of the present subject matter. In one embodiment,the computer program 624 may be included on a compact disk-read onlymemory (CD-ROM) and loaded from the CD-ROM to a hard drive in thenon-volatile memory 622. The machine-readable instructions may cause thecomputing device 601 to encode according to the various embodiments ofthe present subject matter.

It will be appreciated that the various embodiments discussed herein maynot be the same embodiment, and may be grouped into various otherembodiments not explicitly disclosed herein. In addition, it will beappreciated that the various operations, processes, and methodsdisclosed herein may be embodied in a machine-readable medium and/or amachine accessible medium compatible with a data processing system(e.g., a computer system), and may be performed in any order (e.g.,including using means for achieving the various operations).Accordingly, the specification and drawings are to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense.

APPENDIX ‘A’ <?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“utf-8”?> <peerList:peerList   xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:schemas-upnp-org:phone:peer   http://www.upnp.org/schemas/phone/peer-v1.xsd”   xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”   xmlns:peer=“urn:schemas-upnp-org:phone:peer”>    <peer:Peer>   <peer:id>       The identifier of the Peer (e.g., phone number, etc.)    </peer:id>     <peer:name>A user friendly name for thePeer</peer:name>     <peer:contactInstanceId>       The instanceidentifier for a contact referred by the Peer     </peer:contactInstanceId>      <peer:groupInstanceId>       Theinstance identifier for a group referred by the Peer     </peer:groupInstanceId>   </peer:peer> </peerList:peerList><?

APPENDIX ‘B’ <?xml version=“1.0” encoding=“UTF-8”?><StaticConferenceInfo xmlns=“urn:schemas-upnp-org:phone:messaging”xmlns:xsi=“http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema-instance”xsi:schemaLocation=“urn:schemas-upnp-org:phone:messaginghttp://www.upnp.org/schemas/phone/messaging-v1.xsd”>   <Conference_Call_Information>    <ConferenceSessionID>1234</ConferenceSessionID>   <ConferenceType>ad-hoc</conferencetype>   <ConferenceSubject>UPnP-Messaging Spec Review    </ConferenceSubject>   ...    ...   </Conference_Call_Information> </StaticConferenceInfo>

1. A method of multi-media conferencing between Universal Plug and Play(UPnP) enabled telephony devices in an UPNP telephony based home networkand a plurality of Wide Area Network (WAN) devices, wherein the UPnPenabled telephony devices comprises at least one telephony control point(TCP) and one or more telephony client devices (TCs) associated with theat least one TCP, comprising: initiating a multi-media conferencingsession with a plurality of WAN devices by at least one TCP via asession request; and establishing the multi-media conferencing sessionbetween a first TC associated with at least one TCP and the plurality ofWAN devices by a telephony server (TS) in the UPnP telephony based homenetwork based on the session request.
 2. The method of claim 1, whereinthe session request includes a local session identifier, sessioninformation, media capabilities of the first TC, a list of WAN devicesor conference group identifier associated with one or more WAN devices,and a subject of the multi-media conferencing session.
 3. The method ofclaim 2, wherein initiating the multi-media conferencing session withthe plurality of WAN devices by the at least one TCP comprises:generating a session request associated with the multi-mediaconferencing session; and forwarding the session request associated withthe multi-media conferencing session to the TS.
 4. The method of claim3, wherein establishing the multi-media conferencing session between thefirst TC associated with the at least one TCP and the plurality of WANdevices by the TS comprises: initiating the multi-media conferencingsession with the plurality of WAN devices based on the session requestusing a WAN; and providing multi-media data to the first TC and one ormore of the plurality of WAN devices based on the media capabilities ofthe first TC.
 5. The method of claim 4, wherein initiating themulti-media conferencing session with the plurality of WAN devices basedon the session request comprises: receiving the session request from theat least one TCP for initiating the multi-media conferencing sessionwith the plurality of WAN devices; retrieving the local sessionidentifier, the list of WAN devices or the conference group identifierassociated with the one or more WAN devices, media capabilities of thefirst TC, and session information from the received session request;determining whether the session request is associated with themulti-media conferencing session based on the session information; ifso, forwarding a multi-media conference initiate request to each of theplurality of WAN devices from the list of the WAN devices; and if not,terminating the multi-media conferencing session with the plurality ofWAN devices.
 6. The method of claim 5, wherein forwarding themulti-media conference initiate request to each of the plurality of WANdevices in the session request comprises: generating the multi-mediaconference initiate request for establishing the multi-mediaconferencing session between the first TC and the plurality of WANdevices, wherein the multi-media conference initiate request comprises agroup conference session identifier, media capabilities of the first TC,a session subject and the like; and sending the generated multi-mediaconference initiate request to each of the plurality of WAN devicesbased on the list of WAN devices or the conference group identifier viathe WAN.
 7. The method of claim 6, wherein sending the generatedmulti-media conference initiate request further comprises: receiving aconfirmation message from the plurality of WAN devices in response tothe multi-media conference initiate request; processing the confirmationmessage associated with successful establishment of the multi-mediaconferencing session; and notifying the at least one TCP through theprocessed confirmation message associated with successful establishmentof the multi-media conferencing session.
 8. The method of claim 7,wherein in establishing the multi-media conferencing session between thefirst TC and one or more of the plurality of WAN devices, themulti-media conferencing session is selected from the group consistingof a video conferencing session, an audio conferencing session, and anaudio and video conferencing session.
 9. The method of claim 8, whereinestablishing the multi-media conferencing session between the first TCand one or more of the plurality of WAN devices based on the sessionrequest comprises: receiving multi-media data from the plurality of WANdevices by the TS during the multi-media conferencing session; andprocessing and forwarding the multi-media data to the first TC based onthe media capabilities of the first TC during the multi-mediaconferencing session such that the multi-media data is outputted on thefirst TC in a compatible format.
 10. The method of claim 1, furthercomprising: generating a global modify session request by the at leastone TCP during the ongoing multi-media conferencing session between thefirst TC and the plurality of WAN devices, wherein the global modifysession request comprises subject information, media capabilities of thefirst TCP, at least one WAN device to be added/removed into/from themulti-media conferencing session; retrieving information from the globalmodify session request received from the at least one TCP by the TS;communicating modify session information to the plurality of WANdevices; adding or removing at least one WAN device from the ongoingmulti-media conferencing session based on the global modify sessionrequest; and notifying the at least one TCP and other active WAN devicesof the multi-media conferencing session regarding the addition andremoval of the at least one WAN device from the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session.
 11. The method of claim 1, further comprising:generating a join session request by the at least one TCP; retrievingsession identifier information from the join session request receivedfrom the at least one TCP by the TS; determining whether the retrievedsession identifier matches with the session identifier associated withthe ongoing multi-media conferencing session; if so, joining the ongoingmulti-media conferencing session by the TS; if so, allowing the first TCassociated with the at least one TCP to join the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session based on the join session request; and if not,terminating the join session request received from the at least one TCP.12. The method of claim 1, wherein establishing the multi-mediaconferencing session between the first TC and one or more of theplurality of WAN devices comprises: providing dynamic sessioninformation associated with the ongoing multi-media conferencinginformation to the at least one TCP, wherein the dynamic informationincludes user leaving session information, user joining sessioninformation, and any changes in the subject of the multi-mediaconferencing session.
 13. The method of claim 1, further comprisingupdating global session information associated with the multi-mediaconferencing session by the at least one TCP or one of the WAN deviceswhen the multi-media conferencing session is ongoing.
 14. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: generating a local media update request bythe at least one TCP during the ongoing multi-media conferencingsession, wherein the local media update request comprises local mediacapability information, and information associated with a second TC;retrieving information from the local media update request received fromthe at least one TCP by the TS; determining a local media capability ofthe second TC associated with the at least one TCP based on the localmedia update request; updating the local media capability information inmemory associated with the TS; and providing media content to the secondTC during the ongoing multi-media conferencing session based on theupdated local media capability information.
 15. The method of claim 14,further comprising: updating the second TC regarding the updated localmedia capability information by the at least one TCP.
 16. The method ofclaim 1, further comprising: generating a local media update request bythe at least one TCP during the ongoing multi-media conferencingsession, wherein the local media update request comprises local mediacapability information associated with the first TC, and informationassociated with the first TC; retrieving information from the localmedia update request received from the at least one TCP by the TS;determining a local media capability of the first TC based on the localmedia update request; updating the local media capability information inmemory associated with the TS; updating the first TC regarding theupdated local media capability information by the at least one TCP;blocking media content associated with the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session by the TS based on the updated local mediacapability information; and providing media content associated with theongoing multi-media conferencing session to the first TC based on theupdated local media capability information.
 17. The method of claim 1,further comprising: receiving dynamic session information from the TS bythe at least one TCP; and processing and forwarding the dynamic sessioninformation to the first TC by the associated at least one TCP, whereinthe dynamic information includes user leaving session information, userjoining session information, and any changes in the subject ofmulti-media conferencing session.
 18. A non-transitory computer-readablestorage medium having instructions stored therein for performing amethod of multi-media conferencing between Universal Plug and Play(UPnP) enabled telephony devices in a UPNP telephony based home networkand a plurality of Wide Area Network (WAN) devices, wherein the UPnPenabled telephony devices comprises at least one telephony control point(TCP) and one or more telephony client devices (TCs) associated with theat least one TCP, comprising: initiating a multi-media conferencingsession with a plurality of WAN devices by at least one TCP via asession request; and establishing the multi-media conferencing sessionbetween a first TC associated with at least one TCP and the plurality ofWAN devices by a telephony server (TS) in the UPnP telephony based homenetwork based on the session request.
 19. A UPNP telephony based homenetwork system comprising: at least one telephony control point (TCP)for initiating a multi-media conferencing session with a plurality ofwireless area network (WAN) devices via a session request; one or moretelephony client devices (TCs) coupled to the at least one TCP; and atelephony server (TS) coupled to the one of the one or more TCs and theat least one TCP for establishing the multi-media conferencing sessionbetween the one of the one or more TCs and the plurality of WAN devicesbased on the session request.
 20. The UPNP telephony based home networksystem of claim 19, wherein the at least one TCP initiates themulti-media conferencing session with the plurality of WAN devices bygenerating a session request associated with the multi-mediaconferencing session, and forwarding the session request associated withthe multi-media conferencing session to the TS.
 21. The UPNP telephonybased home network system of claim 20, wherein the session requestincludes a local session identifier, session information, mediacapabilities of the one or more TCs, a list of WAN devices or conferencegroup identifier associated with one or more WAN devices, and a subjectof the multi-media conferencing session.
 22. The UPNP telephony basedhome network system of claim 21, wherein the TS establishes themulti-media conferencing session between the one of the one or more TCsand the plurality of WAN devices by initiating the multi-mediaconferencing session with the plurality of WAN devices based on thesession request using a WAN, and providing multi-media conferencing datato the one of the one or more TCs and one or more of the plurality ofWAN devices based on the media capabilities of the one or more TCs. 23.The UPNP telephony based home network system of claim 22, wherein ininitiating the multi-media conferencing session with the plurality ofWAN devices based on the session request, the TS receives the sessionrequest from the at least one TCP for initiating the multi-mediaconferencing session with the plurality of WAN devices, retrieves thelocal session identifier, the list of WAN devices or the conferencegroup identifier associated with the one or more WAN devices, mediacapabilities of the one or more TCs, and session information from thereceived session request, determines whether the session request isassociated with the multi-media conferencing session based on thesession information, and generates and forwards a multi-media conferenceinitiate request to each of the plurality of WAN devices from the listof the WAN devices or based on the conference group identifierassociated with the one or more WAN devices, wherein the multi-mediaconference initiate request comprises a group conference sessionidentifier, media capabilities of the one or more TCs, a session subjectand the like.
 24. The UPNP telephony based home network system of claim23, wherein the TS receives a confirmation message from the plurality ofWAN devices in response to the multi-media conference initiate requestupon forwarding the multi-media conference initiate request, processesthe confirmation message associated with successful establishment of themulti-media conferencing session, and notifies the at least one TCPthrough the processed confirmation message regarding successfulestablishment of the multi-media conferencing session.
 25. The UPNPtelephony based home network system of claim 24, wherein the multi-mediaconferencing session is selected from the group consisting of a videoconferencing session, an audio conferencing session, and an audio andvideo conferencing session.
 26. The UPNP telephony based home networksystem of claim 25, wherein in establishing the multi-media conferencingsession between the one of the one or more TCs and the one or more ofthe plurality of WAN devices, the TS receives multi-media data from theplurality of WAN devices during the multi-media conferencing session,and processes and forwards the multi-media data to the one of the one ormore TCs based on the media capabilities of the one or more TCs duringthe multi-media conferencing session such that the multi-media data isoutputted on the one of the one or more TCs in a compatible format. 27.The UPNP telephony based home network system of claim 19, wherein the TSreceives a global modify session request from the at least one TCPduring the ongoing multi-media conferencing session between the one ofthe one or more TCs and the plurality of WAN devices, retrievesinformation from the global modify session request received from the atleast one TCP, communicates modify session information to the pluralityof WAN devices, adds or removes at least one WAN device from the ongoingmulti-media conferencing session based on the global modify sessionrequest, and notifies the at least one TCP and other active WAN devicesof the multi-media conferencing session regarding the addition andremoval of the at least one WAN device from the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session, wherein the global modify session requestcomprises subject information, media capabilities of the one of the oneor more TCs, at least one WAN device to be added/removed into/from themulti-media conferencing session.
 28. The UPNP telephony based homenetwork system of claim 19, wherein the TS receives a join sessionrequest from the at least one TCP, retrieves session identifierinformation from the join session request received from the at least oneTCP, determines whether the retrieved session identifier matches with asession identifier associated with the ongoing multi-media conferencingsession, joins the ongoing multi-media conferencing session if match isfound, allows the one of the one or more TCs to join the ongoingmulti-media conferencing session based on the join session request, andterminates the join session request received from the at least one TCPif no match is found.
 29. The UPNP telephony based home network systemof claim 19, wherein the TS provides dynamic session informationassociated with the ongoing multi-media conferencing information to theat least one TCP, wherein the dynamic information includes user leavingsession information, user joining session information, and any changesin the subject of the multimedia conferencing session.
 30. The UPNPtelephony based home network system of claim 19, wherein the at leastone TCP updates global session information associated with themulti-media conferencing session during the ongoing multi-mediaconferencing session.
 31. The UPNP telephony based home network systemof claim 19, wherein the at least one TCP generates a local media updaterequest during the ongoing multi-media conferencing session, wherein thelocal media update request comprises local media capability information,and information associated with the one or more TCs.
 32. The UPNPtelephony based home network system of claim 31, wherein the TSretrieves local media capability information from the local media updaterequest received from the at least one TCP, determines a local mediacapability of said another of the one or more TCs associated with the atleast one TCP based on the local media update request, updates the localmedia capability information in memory associated with the TS, andprovides media content to said another of the one or more TCs during theongoing multi-media conferencing session based on the updated localmedia capability information.
 33. The UPNP telephony based home networksystem of claim 32, wherein the at least one TCP updates said another ofthe one or more TCs regarding the update local media capabilityinformation.
 34. The UPNP telephony based home network system of claim31, wherein the TS receives the local media update request from the atleast one TCP during the ongoing multi-media conferencing session,retrieves information from the local media update request, determines alocal media capability of the one of the one or more TCs associated withthe at least one TCP based on the local media update request, updatesthe local media capability information in memory associated with the TS,blocks media content not associated with the local media capabilityduring the ongoing multi-media conferencing session based on the updatedlocal media capability information, and provides media content to theone of the one or more TCs during the ongoing multi-media conferencingsession based on the updated local media capability information.
 35. TheUPNP telephony based home network system of claim 19, wherein the atleast TCP receives the dynamic session information from the TS, andprocesses and forwards the dynamic session information to associated oneor more TCs, wherein the dynamic information includes user leavingsession information, user joining session information, and any changesin the subject of the multi-media conferencing session.